The coming weeks are vital for all involved with G.I. Joe: Retaliation, as a four-minute preview will debut in front of the forthcoming period action flick, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton.

In anticipation of its March 29 bow, Paramount is previewing four minutes of “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” in front of “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters” which opens this weekend.

The preview will play in IMAX 3D, RealD 3D and digital 3D theaters and will run throughout “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters” entire theatrical engagement.

This seems like an unusual move and perhaps one of desperation from a marketing team that has left it very late to push their big-budget sequel starring Channing Tatum, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Bruce Willis. The effectiveness of a move such as this is entirely dependent on the feature presentation performing well at the box-office; otherwise the preview will fail to reach its target demographic and risks underexposure.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters has not been tracking particularly well domestically, but early figures suggest that it will perform strongly at an international level. This means that the marketing push may be more beneficial to G.I. Joe: Retaliation’s international performance.

Domestically, the sequel will be overwhelmingly reliant on the star-power of Channing Tatum and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, who have enjoyed huge success in recent years, albeit unexpected. Now the focus is entirely on them, the presence of Bruce Willis will undoubtedly help, but the movie’s performance will be a strong indication of Tatum and Johnson’s lasting global appeal.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is due for release in the US on 25th January 2013 and in the UK on 22nd February 2013.